by Rob Rosenbaum, Regional Director (CHOSA)

In early October, CHOSA had the exciting opportunity to welcome the Weekend Warriors to Cape Town. After winning Anthem Entertainment’s International Music Festival, the Weekend Warriors arrived in South Africa to put on a series of concerts, expand their fan base, and see where the money raised from this contest was going.

On Thursday, October 1st, the WW first linked up with CHOSA by joining volunteers to attend an after-school programme with one of our partnering organizations, The Philippi Angels Township Baseball Academy. We threw a couple of guitars into the van and decided to see what would happen. WW ended up putting on an acoustic concert for the 40 or so kids who were at practice that day. It was a HUGE hit and the kids were singing their songs well into the weekend. The following week, we took WW out on a full tour of the projects CHOSA supports. The clear highlight of this was a similar acoustic concert they put on for the 70 kids at Ubuhle Babantwana preschool. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and before long the street was full of kids and teachers dancing and clapping along to the music.

A subsequent text message from Pumla, the founder of Ubuhle, says it all: “How can I forget to thank you for such a wonderful day with the wonderful singers. It was such fun to have them. My kids enjoyed. Such an honour. Thanx Rob you are such a star.”

Keep your eyes and ears open for reflections from the band members, themselves.